An Old Cookery Book

I was given The Glasgow Cookery Book a few months ago; I’m a sucker for an old and worn book and everyone knows it. I put it to one side to have a look at later and forgot about it until more recently. An old book that smells like it should deserves a proper going over and a nice cup of tea. I sat down to enjoy a flick through the aged pages and got a lot more than I bargained for.

I was hoping to find an interesting recipe that had perhaps been forgotten about or a take on something I make regularly. What I found instead was a myriad of lists, scribbles, notes, pieces of paper, recipe cards and more. The picture below is the inside front cover which is plastered in words and phrases, for example, ‘Russian Fill Pie’ or ‘Grilled Kidneys’ amongst others.

On closer inspection some of the words refer to a page number but some of them seem like a moment of inspiration. On the hunt for more information about the previous owner I started thumbing through the book and found some more trinkets. One piece of paper seems to be a continuation of the front cover; on another page is a recipe from a magazine or an old style shopping list.

There are a few bits which I suppose were used as bookmarks, certainly they were found on the more stained pages, and a card from a hotel I can assume they visited. This is why I love old books, there’s so much more of a story behind them. The notes on the recipes from the previous owner show their personal take and taste on a dish and in this case a little bit of history about them too. There is no date of publishing in this book or any other date on anything I found.

The above picture is a sound piece of advice if ever I’ve been given one. After searching through the book I found the name of the owner: Sandra. What a mystery; who was she, where did she live, how come I’ve ended up with her old book? From the amount of marks, notes and stains on the pages she clearly experimented and varied her diet and was honest about things that didn’t work. I sort of feel like I’ve got two books in one.

I was scratching my head, wondering what this book was. Hailing from Glasgow I had a feeling, I should really know this book but from your description, I understand a bit more as to why I don’t.The previous owner certainly has a great sense of humour “avoid if possible” – Love it!

Your book could be up to a hundred years old depending on the edition.

What a lovely post. It’s one the the things I love about pre-owned cookbooks, discovering those bits of paper marking recipes, or shopping receipts in shillings and pence. (I see from your latest post that you have just moved. Good luck with the unpacking and enjoy your new home!)